ANZ: Agribusiness Resources & What To Know | Canstar

ANZ has won Canstar’s 2016 Award for Bank of the Year – Agribusiness. What is this award, who is ANZ, and what do they offer agribusiness customers?

Canstar researches and rates agribusiness products on offer in New Zealand in our Bank of the Year – Agribusiness Award. We can’t say what the future of agribusiness will be, but we can tell you what institutions are providing a quality offering for agribusiness owners in the current environment.

Canstar congratulates ANZ on winning the 2016 Award for Bank of the Year – Agribusiness.

Canstar is an information provider and in giving you product information Canstar is not making any suggestion or recommendation about a particular product. If you decide to apply for a product, you will deal directly with a financial institution, and not with Canstar. Rates and product information should be confirmed with the relevant financial institution. For more information, read our detailed disclosure, important notes and additional information.

What is this award?

Canstar’s Agribusiness Award is awarded to the institution that provides the best combination of products available for agribusiness customers, as well as excelling in a range of institutional factors.

The award aims to give recognition to the institution that backs up quality products with great service to the agribusiness sector.

Institutional factors that were considered in deciding this year’s award include:

Relationship Management

Range of Additional Banking Products

Other Services (e.g. insurance)

Online Banking Functionality

Information and Educational Resources

Who is ANZ?

ANZ has a long history, founded in 1835 in Sydney as the Bank of Australasia. Nearly 1 in 2 Kiwis have a banking relationship with one of the ANZ brands. They are New Zealand’s largest rural banker, serving 39% of rural Kiwis.

Since 1990, ANZ staff members have fundraised over $15 million for The Cancer Society. ANZ has a school banking program, and runs educational workshops for kids and youth.

What do ANZ offer agribusiness owners?

Canstar’s Agribusiness Award recognises the institution who is leading the pack when it comes to product and services for that industry. ANZ has once again proven to be providing a strong proposition for New Zealand farmers.

Education:

ANZ holds “Business of Farming” workshops each year to look at business management practices and challenges in the industry. This year’s topics include:

DairyBase Benchmarking

Family Business Succession Planning

Benefiting from Irrigation

Red Meat opportunities

ANZ also runs workshops to help farmers set up their first farming business.

More broadly, ANZ assists in the development and knowledge of their customers. They publish a bi-monthly report called Agrifocus that provides a summary of recent events and also topical issues. They also invest in various industry initiatives and awards.

Products and Services:

ANZ has a compelling product offering through a range of deposit and lending products which assist with the day to day operation and funding of an agribusiness.

What really shone through was their bespoke or structured products for NZ farmers. These included:

Pasture and Performance Loan: ANZ offers loans of up to $100,000 over 5 years to help farmers make improvements that will increase the profitability of their businesses, by investing in areas such as pasture renewal, fencing, forage growth, performance tracking, or gene pool improvement.

Farm Start-up Package: ANZ offers loans of up to $50,000 for start-up capital costs, to help the next generation of farmers get started. The package also provides discounts on insurance products and business and personal accounts, with no fees charged for the first 12 months.

Environmental Loan: ANZ offers loans of up to $300,000 to improve effluent management, improve water management and quality, generate renewable energy, or other purposes related to sustainability or environmental protection. These environmental loans come with a low interest rate of 4%.

Seasonal Finance: Payments on agribusiness loan facilities can be seasonal and in sync with the cashflow of the business.

ANZ has invested heavily in having a wide network of relationship managers to assist with their customers’ needs. This is important as no two farms are exactly the same, and relationship managers enable banking institutions to tailor and structure their offering to a particular farm’s finance needs.

Compare agribusiness solutions

In 2016, Canstar has researched and rated five different providers of agribusiness solutions in New Zealand. You can compare agribusiness banks on the Canstar website by reading the report for our 2016 award for Bank of the Year – Agribusiness.